Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed al-Muwali ( ar, محمد يونس الأحمد) aka Khadr al-Sabahi is a former senior member of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Ahmed currently has a million dollar bounty placed on his head as one of Iraq's most wanted men accused of funding and leading resistance operations. He is the leader of al-Awda; an underground Ba'athist movement in Iraq.

Early life and career in Ba'athist Iraq

Ahmed was born in 1949 in al-Mowall in the

Kingdom of Iraq The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq ( ar, المملكة العراقية الهاشمية, translit=al-Mamlakah al-ʿIrāqiyyah ʾal-Hāshimyyah) was a state located in the Middle East from 1932 to 1958. It was founded on 23 August 1921 as the Kingdo ...

's Mosul Province, and rose in the ranks of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Initially serving in the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

's Political Guidance Directorate, which was tasked with ensuring Ba'athist control of the military, Ahmed later became a senior member of the party's Military Bureau. Though part of the Ba'ath Party's supreme command by the time of the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Ba'athist Iraq, Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one mont ...

, the United States did not prioritize his capture until months after the fall of the Ba'athist government, inadvertently giving Ahmed enough time to go into hiding.

Iraqi insurgency

A former aide to former

President of Iraq The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...

and leader Saddam Hussein and a regional Baath Party organiser who it appears was trained in Moscow, following the 2003 Iraq War, he was allegedly one of the leading figures among the

Iraqi Insurgency Iraqi insurgency may refer to: * Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011), part of the Iraq War ** Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency ** Iraqi civil war (2006–2008), multi-sided civil war in Iraq * Iraqi insurgency (2 ...

and a major rival to

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri ( ar, عزة إبراهيم الدوري, Izzat Ibrāhīm ad-Dūrī; 1 July 1942 – 25 October 2020) was an Iraqi politician and Army Field Marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council u ...

. By 2006, the Iraqi government alleged he was an "operational leader", "financial facilitator" and field commander of the Ba'athist insurgents. Largely based in Syria since the war, Younis was accused by Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki of having access to substantial funds and that he has been disbursing funds and directing fighting of Sunni insurgents inside Iraq. According to journalists Michael Weiss and

Hassan Hassan Hassan Hassan (born 1982) is an American author and journalist of Syrian origin. He co-wrote the 2015 ''New York Times'' bestseller '' ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror'' with Michael Weiss. He has written on Islamist groups in the Middle East. H ...

, Syrian President

Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the S ...

attempted to make al-Ahmed the leader of the Iraqi Baathist insurgents at some point. However, others reported that his organization, al-Awda has many Shi'ites in the middle level and is attractive to some former Ba’athist Shi'ites from southern Iraq, and it is believed that Shi'ite followers of Younis are active in southern Iraq. Furthermore, it is reported that Younis' organization is focused on securing political rehabilitation, amnesties and the repatriation of Baathist exiles, unlike the

Naqshbandi Army The Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order ( ar, جيش رجال الطريقة النقشبندية ''Jaysh Rijāl aṭ-Ṭarīqa an-Naqshabandiya''), also called the Naqshbandi Army, is one of a number of underground Ba'ath Party, Ba'athist a ...

which wants to violently overthrow the Iraqi government. According to the United States Department of the Treasury, Younis has lived back and forth between Syria, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. On 23 August 2009 the Iraqi government aired a taped of an alleged conversation between two members of the Syria-based Iraqi Ba'athist movement, Sattam Farhan and al-Ahmed, linking them with the

August 2009 Baghdad bombings The August 2009 Baghdad bombings were three coordinated car bomb attacks and a number of mortar strikes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on 19 August 2009. The explosives were detonated simultaneously across the capital at approximately 10:45 in ...

which claimed more than 100 lives. The Syrian foreign ministry denied Syrian involvement in the attack. On 25 August Iraq summoned its ambassador to return from Syria, the Syrian government issued a similar order to its ambassador within hours in retaliation. When the Iraqi government demanded in November 2009 that Syria extradite al-Ahmed, President al-Assad refused to do so, claiming that he had already been expelled from Syria. Despite this, Iraqi and American security forces had reported no signs of Baathists illegally crossing the border in the recent months and responsibility for the August bombings was later claimed by the

Islamic State of Iraq The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI; ar, دولة العراق الإسلامية '), commonly referred to as al-Qaeda in Iraq ( ar, القاعدة في العراق '), is a militant Salafist jihadist group that aimed to establish an Islamic sta ...

Ba'athist Rivalries

Ahmed was first mentioned in a report in the Iraqi government-owned al-Sabah newspaper, which reported on 6 December 2004 that a captured insurgent, Moyayad Yaseen Ahmad, the leader of

Jeish Muhammad Jeish Muhammad ( ar, جيش محمد الفاتح Jaish Muḥammad al-Fātiḥ, translation: ''Army of Muhammad the Conqueror''; JM) is an Iraqi militant group that is both politically and religiously motivated. The politically motivated faction ...

, had claimed that Ahmed had recently been elected Secretary of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party at a conference held by a group of Ba'athist fugitives in

Al-Hasakah Al-Hasakah ( ar, ٱلْحَسَكَة, al-Ḥasaka; ku, Heseke/حەسەکە; syr, ܚܣܝܟܐ Hasake), is the capital city of the Al-Hasakah Governorate, in the northeastern corner of Syria. With a 2004 census population of 188,160, it is the ei ...

, Syria. Ahmed made another attempt for the party leadership following the death of Saddam Hussein, leading to condemnation from supporters of al-Douri who ordered the expulsion of Ahmed and 150 other members of the party. Ahmed issued a counter-order ordering the expulsion of al-Douri from the party, leading to the creation of two separate wings of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Al-Douri issued a statement criticizing Syria and Younis for what al-Douri claimed was an American-supported attempt to undermine the Iraqi Ba'ath party, although this statement was later downplayed. Ahmed's wing of the party allegedly has contacts with former Republican Guard Commander Ra'ad al-Hamdani, and has also allegedly been in contact with Wafiq Al-Samarrai in an effort to legitimize the party. Ahmed, in his attempts to reunite the party, and built a close working relationship with the Syrian government, unlike al-Douri, who distrusts the Syrians due to their alliance with the Iranians. The Syrian government is quietly supporting Ahmed in order to gain more control over the Iraqi Ba'ath party. In March 2009 several members representing Younis approached

Coalition Forces ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

and the

Provincial Reconstruction Team A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was a unit introduced by the United States government, consisting of military officers, diplomats, and reconstruction subject matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable states. PRT ...

in Saladin Governorate. They met with representatives of the Coalition, instead of representatives of the Iraqi Government, because they claimed the Iraqi government was under Iranian influence, and might seek revenge against any Ba'ath Party members. They said that the Younis-led faction were dissatisfied with the present government of Iraq, which they claimed was both sectarian and also failing to provide infrastructure and public services. The representatives claimed that the Younis-led faction wasn't opposed to democracy, and instead wished to peacefully participate in the democratic process. They also claimed that unlike the al-Douri-led faction, they recognized that the pre-2003 Ba'athist government had made many mistakes, and that Iraq could not return to that system of government. Ahmed's attempts to recruit support in Syria from former Iraqi Ba'athists is meeting some success, particularly among the poorer Sunni Arab segment of the refugee population, due in part to Ahmed's ability to offer cash incentives and Syrian residency permits due to their closeness to the Syrian government.

Notes

References

Works cited